Evolving Event Decks: Into the Breach

Jacob Van LunenWednesday, March 16, 2011

nto the Breach, a Mirrodin Besieged Event Deck, is competitive directly out of the box. The deck bears some resemblance to Kuldotha Red, the most aggressive strategy available in the current Standard. Today, I'm going to walk you through an evolution of this powerful preconstructed deck.

It's easy to see how powerful this strategy can be. Your opponent will be dead on turn three or four with a surprising level of consistency. The deck can be more powerful than ever if you make a few small changes.

The first thing I'd like to do here is add the third and fourth Goblin Bushwhacker. Bushwhacker is perhaps the most powerful spell in this archetype. It's a common from Zendikar, so it shouldn't be difficult to acquire an extra two copies. I'd cut the Spikeshot Elder and a Galvanic Blast for the extra copies of Goblin Bushwhacker. Spikeshot Elder is excellent in many red decks, but I'd like to make this deck as aggressive as possible.

Darksteel Axe presents an interesting dilemma. I'd like to maximize the number of creatures we play in this deck, but I don't want to risk not playing enough artifacts. Flayer Husk seems like a good replacement in this spot. The new Mirrodin Besieged Equipment fulfills all of our conditions of satisfaction. The 1/1 for one mana is going to do a lot more work than its power and toughness may lead you to believe. Cards like Goblin Bushwhacker, Goblin Wardriver, Contested War Zone, and Signal Pest will make everybody into an extraordinarily powerful threat.

Speaking of Contested War Zone, this land is the realest of deals. I must admit that I was skeptical the first time a friend spoke about the power level of this card. It didn't take more than a game or two to evangelize me, though. I found that the "drawback" on Contested War Zone was irrelevant. The level of aggression presented by this deck makes attacking a huge liability for your opponent. It's hard to pull the trigger and get in the red zone when your opponent is threatening a lethal swingback as early as the third turn. I'd like to add an additional three copies of this card. There was a lot of demand for Contested War Zone the first week after Mirrodin Besieged was released, but that seems to have died down a bit. It shouldn't be too difficult to get your paws on an additional three copies.

As we move the deck in a faster direction, the Iron Myr and last copy of Galvanic Blast seem a little out of place to me. I really want to get value out of my battle cry creatures, Contested War Zone, and Goblin Bushwhacker, so I don't really want to draw more than one non creature per game. Chimeric Mass seems like it could be an excellent replacement for these cards. Chimeric Mass is also another artifact that lets us cast our Kuldotha Rebirth on the first turn; I can't stress the importance of this enough.

I'm very happy with the list we've arrived at now. Let's take a look at the new main deck:

If you're looking to put a little extra power into the deck then you can replace one Lightning Bolt and the lone Panic Spellbomb with extra copies of Goblin Guide. If you're lucky enough to have a copy or two of Mox Opal, then I would cut Mountains for those. Some people like having three to four copies of Mox Opal in this deck, but I'd much rather have one or two copies of a card that I never ever want to draw a second copy of.

Now I'd like to take a look at the sideboard. Here's the sideboard that comes with the event deck:

Tuktuk the Explorer is an excellent answer to the board sweepers, the mirror, or decks like Boros that have trouble battling through a 5/5 body. There hasn't been a lot of demand for this guy, so he can usually be acquired with relative ease.

This certainly isn't normal, but I thought I'd share this game because it really showcases the power of the deck. I was able to win on the third turn after losing the roll and having to fight a turn three Precursor Golem without a Lightning Bolt.

This deck is certainly worthy of some second glances. An evolution of Into the Breach that looks similar to this is almost certainly tier one in the current Standard format. It may seem gimmicky, but the redundancy available for a deck like this in the form of battle cry creatures and Goblin Bushwhacker makes it very scary for any opponent.

This is definitely the deck I'd be playing if I were going to a Standard tournament in the near future. I'm always a sucker for a good combo deck, and that's what this is underneath the aggro.

I hope you enjoyed the Evolving Event Decks series for Mirrodin Besieged! I'll be quick to jump on the new Event Decks when they're released with upcoming sets.